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Florida teen sues Instagram over deleted account, citing emotional stress

A teenage Instagramer who used her page to promote study routines and scholastic stationery is suing the social media photo giant for deleting her Instagram account.

The 17-year-old’s account – @studytosuccess – was closed by Instagram in September for what was called a violation of its terms of use, according to a lawsuit filed on Thursday in Leon County Circuit Court.

 

The account had nearly 124,000 followers as at the time it was shut down. The teen, named in court records as E.S.W., also has a YouTube channel with more than 20,000 subscribers that remains active.

Her attorney, James Waczewski, said his theory was that the account was deleted as Instagram worked to purge fake and bot accounts.

 

Waczewski said that thousands of accounts were deleted in July and again in September, which was when his client’s account vanished.

 

He said, “We’re thinking the violations of the terms of use is an excuse for another glitch in their system.”

 

The teen is seeking damages due to emotional stress causing nausea, discomfort and insomnia, and monetary compensation as well.

 

But Waczewski said that getting the main account back online was the main goal.

 

“If it cannot be reinstated because they had a glitch,” Waczewski said, “we want at least for them to be accountable for what really happened and not say this account was deleted for violation of terms of use… That’s not what happened here.”

 

A new Instagram account – @studytosuccessofficial – has been created and has drawn more than 8,000 followers. It notes that the original account was “hacked at 124K.”

The lawsuit claims that Instagram breached its contract, falsely purported its terms of use had been violated, and that the teen had been defamed by implying “she engaged in some severe misconduct that resulted in the deletion of her account.”

 

At the time of deleting the account, the teen was receiving offers to run marketing ads for profit and products.

 

According to the Lawsuit, she was reported to Instagram three times for posting two photos without credit or posting it in an improper place when she was first learning to use the account. But those issues were resolved with the removal of the photos.

 

Instagram gave no reason for terminating the page. It is, however, of note, that its Terms of Use Agreement gives the Company authority to delete and monitor accounts at will. Guidelines also allow it to alter the terms of use as it sees fit.

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